Mírzá Muhammad Shafi Rouhani was born in 1894 in the city of Nayriz. A distinguished historian and a sincere servant of Bahá'u'lláh, he came from two dedicated Bábí families. On his mother's side, he was the descendant of Mullá ‘Abdu'l Husayn, one of the very first believers of Nayriz who invited Vahid to Nayriz. On his father's side, he was the descendant of Siyyid Jafar-i-Yazdi who received a major tablet from Bahá'u'lláh. Siyyid Ja'far-i-Yazdi was a follower of the Báb and supported Vahid during the first upheaval.

Mírzá Muhammad Shafi Rouhani wrote the book Lamatel-u-Anvar, a classic history of Nayriz, containing complete accounts of the lives of different families and many tablets from Bahá'u'lláh and ‘Abdu'l-Bahá. In his own diary, Mírzá Muhammad Shafi states that from the time he was an adolescent he collected many stories by interviewing people who remembered the early days of the Bábí and Bahá'í Faith. Those stories were the basis for this book.

A youth during the 1909 Shaykh Zakeria assault on Nayriz, he miraculously survived the onslaught. In 1921 he went to Haifa as a pilgrim, staying for 39 days and returned with many fond memories that he shared with the friends.

Mírzá Muhammad Shafi married my aunt Tuba, a daughter of Mírzá Ahmad Nayrizi Vahidi. Mírzá Muhammad Shafi and his wife raised seven children who are all in the forefront of service to the Faith. His utmost joy was teaching the Faith. In 1937 he was forced to leave Nayriz for Shiraz as the conditions became extremely dangerous for him and his family. After the 1979 Iranian revolution, the 85-year old Mírzá Muhammad Shafi and his wife lost all of their belongings. They had no choice but to leave Iran and left for India. Mírzá Muhammad Shafi died five years later in Pune, India. Most of his children have pioneered to Africa or the Middle East.